Hanging with crafty friends

These school holidays have been different.....usually I set out to conquer a huge list of things to do......you know...

the de cluttering, cleaning, sorting ,working part time, keeping kids entertained, reading a few good books , sleep ins......

Well this time I didn't have a list......

partly because there were quite a few things already in the diary......dance competitions, sleep overs, work days, husband home days, new part time job shifts and repainting bedrooms.

Without me having my own agenda other nice things happened

One of the highlights was Meg having a couple of friends over to sleep and craft...

 

Despite our small house being in disarray due to the painting of the a bedroom....it all worked fine..

 

The weather was perfect for heading outside and making a mess.....the dye kind of mess...

 

Socks, t-shirts, pillowcases...nothing was safe from the colour being splashed around....

 

and when the dye needed time to be doing it's thing, there was some more stencils to be made....

 

I ducked out at one stage to have my haircut and on returning an hour later...a newly gifted pair of jeans had been turned into shorts!!! Lucky her aunt understands her creative niece (they were op shopped jeans)

In true style my girl always has dance on her brain.

It was lovely to see her helping her friends in their crafty endevours.....and apparently her friends didn't mind in the slightest that our home was less than ready for guests....

Ahhh school holidays ...you never really do know what they might throw up ...and sometimes getting rid of to do lists is a good thing.

It also helps that we have a trip planned for next week to look forward to .

I think I will be able to link to Leonie this week.....

Something Cute {Blogtoberfest 9}

I wanted to show you a really cute idea that my Sister-in-Law popped in the guests "goodie bag" yesterday.....{I know, she was the guest of honor and she gave us gifts!}

 She made this really cute tiny paper pieced  apron......

and tucked in the pocket of the apron was a little parcel with a tag-

{Baby Bassett is brewing}

and a tea bag tucked inside that little envelope.

I love having such clever and creative sisters and sister in laws!

{not sure where the original idea came from sorry!}

Blackboard messages

After spotting this great idea here the other day....

and knowing that I had a roll of needed blackboard contact sitting waiting for the perfect project...

I set to work ...

Firstly I had to find my fridge face under the myriad of photos, magnets and special items.....

The kids made use of it yesterday and today it holds the start of a shopping list.

When I need to change the space for something else it simply peels off!

Working and playing

Well thanks to some very lovely ladies ( and Meg) who came and gave of some of their time today ....

we now have finished 100 no- sew scarves and a few dozen library bags for the project

It was so nice to share the load and have a chat whilst doing it...

Thanks guys for giving of yourselves and your talents.

Hopefully a few homemade goodies for afternoon tea were enough of payment....

The orange cake recipe came from here...

Then after all that chatting,eating and crafting we headed to a Quiz Night in support of our  church youth doing the 40 Hour Famine.....

Nothing like going to a quiz night to ground you and remind yourself that you actually know very little about a lot.

Preparations

Today was spent giving my overlocker / serger a total workout........

My scissors also got a fair hammering too......

My busyness was too get prepared for a sewing bee tomorrow with a few friends......

We have 100 no -  sew scarves to cut and a few dozen library bags to whip up....

all for the Samaritans Purse Christmas in a Shoebox Project  my church is participating in.

Braiding fun

I don't know about you but I always have a bag full of something that needs to be dropped off at the op shop.....

In my travels around the net I am always on the look out for great upcycling ideas.

I found a great tutorial here....

Re-purposing: Tshirts into 5-strand-braided-headbands

This sounded like my kind of thing to try and seeing as I always have that bag of goodies to donate and a daughter that has a beautiful head of hair that always needs taming...it was perfect.

These two were made using the 2 inch strips...

She was not sure that she was in need of a green one but I was on a roll....next to cut up a purple one for her...this time I will try the narrower strips to braid.

Felted Soap

Yesterday the sun was warm and out in full.....today it was very wet grey and cold.....

So luckily yesterday we took the opportunity to try some wet felting.

I have played around with wet felting a little before but saw this fun tutorial for felted soap and thought it would be fun to try.

I found it quite therapeutic rolling the bars of soap in my hands creating a very sudsy mess.....

Some worked better then others. It would have been great to have added some needle felting to the design....maybe next time we have a go.

It was a fun thing to do out in the sunshine .

Crafting for a cause

At this time each year I head up a campaign to enrol my church family in the Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child Project.

Our goal each year  has been to collate 100 boxes to be sent overseas to children in time for Christmas.

We always include :

school supplies, toothbrush,soap and face washer,t-shirt, toys, ball, library bag and teddy along with a few other goodies....

I have some great willing people who each year craft with me to make things for the boxes. We have great fellowship while doing it and we all know that crafting is always more fun with friends.....

Yesterday I was gifted with two bags of knitted teddies and a box of snakes......

A retirement village a short way from us has an abundance of willing hands, materials available to them and no-where to give their spoils too!!!!!

Oh what great timing for me.....I will gladly put these to a great cause.....

The teddies were all knitted by one 83 year old lady  with the promise of so many more.....

I am so thrilled to be helping out the keen old folk and at the same time have some beautiful supplies to fill maybe more than 100 boxes this year.

You can get involved yourself by visiting Samaritans Purse and following the easy guide to filling your own Christmas box.


If you are reading in reader pop over to my blog to watch a great video

Easter Crafting

Look out for Easter crafting fun on Mel and Tamar's Blogs.......

Mum's YoYo's

In my creative space yesterday I said I was using some yoyo's......

I have many special things around my home and in my creative space that belonged to my mum...

mum has been gone 13years after losing her very short battle with cancer aged 54 years.

My mum is responsible for my creative abilities as she always encouraged , modelled and taught me skills as I was growing up.

When I had my first baby we would spend evenings together sewing clothes for my little one and I would always be learning something from her.

So I feel blessed to have things that were hers especially things made with her very own hands....she didn't have a fancy yoyo maker but patiently used a cardboard pattern and hand cut and sewed each one. I am thinking she had the idea of some quilt or bigger project in mind just never got there.

Now I dig through the basket, regularly thinking about the materials and what they were scraps from and how I can attach them to something I have now created.

Creating with friends

Have you checked out the Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays...today was our first chance to join in. As we were already sorting our artist supplies this was a good opportunity to dig out some felt and calico scraps and set to work.

Just as we begun friends from up the street knocked on the door....so we had friends to help with the puppet making....

I was hoping Meg would be able to sew them up on her machine but it didn't go smoothly and now that we had friends I thought I should help out......

I couldn't keep up with them....I was really impressed with there drawing skills.....

When I wasn't sewing the puppets, I was cutting up old Christmas cards(2009 collection) into gift tags for next this year's pressies. They are cut using only the cards that didn't have writing on the back ,then hole punched and just waiting twine ....I'll do that next Christmas - THIS YEAR.

Hip Hip Hooray for holidays

Go and check out Mel or Tamar for their holiday fun for kids ideas starting today.
I am sure they will have some great ideas to join in with and keep the kids a little busy.

Sticky Stars

Stars out to dry before the nursery class at church tomorrow...there seems no end to crafting in this season.
(a stark contrast to the advertising material they are drying on.)

Time to start giving...

 

In amongst the craziness of my work at the moment I have found a few moments to begin working on some simple gifts for those who have supported me during the year in some of the areas of my work.

This week is our last week of Playgroups and so I begin with some gifts for my faithful workers.

These notebooks were not only simple but lovely to make. I used an idea from here and adjusted the pattern to suit my materials.

Tomorrow I will show you an idea I found for wrapping them.

Flowers

My online felting class started yesterday. Meg joined me in trying out the first very basic project...felt flowers.

Having never felted before I was unsure of how hard the process would be.....

too easy and it was quite addictive. I can see these may be appearing on a number of handmade goodies I have planned for Christmas gifts.

An early visit

Rudolph made an early visit today at playgroup....but seeing as next week is the final week and it will be ending with a Christmas party I thought it was now or never.

I saw the idea here and had to make some modifications due to the materials I could find.

These great pots were found in Bunnings and usually they would have a seed or two in them ...always fun to find another purpose for things  I say!

After the initial resistance from the mums about it being too early for Christmas things...they were a huge hit.

Felt- a - lious

 

I am taking my stash of wool and joining in my first online class starting Friday.....

I have had good intentions with this wool to teach myself felting.

But I now have the opportunity of being guided and taught by Emily and Nicole via their  online class.

It is not too late if you would like to join in....just head here for the details.

Hopefully I will have some things to show after the weekend.....or maybe I will have to keep them a secret as I am hoping to make some gifts for Christmas.

Craft Hope

Have you seen this book? 
I ordered my copy from The Book Depositary (free delivery anywhere in the world) and it arrived two days ago. Tonight is the first chance I have had to pour through it.
You can check out more about Jade Sims and her Craft Hope Projects here.
There are so many lovely ideas to inspire helping those in need while combining a love for crafting. 

 Chicken Update....This was our first day at collecting three eggs.....I think they are really happy and at home now.

My Creative Space

This is the project that is allowing me to stay up and watch the Tour De France with Derek. Unless I am busy I have a bad habit of falling asleep in front of the TV. The coverage is late into the night, I love the commentary of the countryside and I actually enjoy the cycling as well.
So we all win because after three weeks of late nights I hopefully will have another blanket to keep us warm and have also maintained informed conversation with my guy.
I got my inspiration for the blanket from here.
Check out other creative people here.

Mission begun

Over the next few months I will be heading up a project in our church to support the charity Operation Christmas Child.
One of the many tasks I need to complete for this project to get under way is some very low or no cost items to go into a gifted shoebox.
I started by purchasing a whole lot of polar fleece at a great price to make some No-Sew-Scarves..........

I will enlist the help of some very dedicated friends, some are crafters but many are not so the aim is to find as simple time effective tasks ....
did I mention that we need to produce 100 of each different idea we come up with?

The mission has begun......